Man listed dead for years asks prosecutor to persuade bureaucrats he is alive

The mistake surfaced when the 41-old man decided to conclude an official contract with the employer

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KALININGRAD, August 10. /TASS/. A middle-aged man in Russia’s westernmost exclave region of Kaliningrad has had to turn to the office of the regional prosecutor as his last resort in an attempt to persuade the local bureaucrats he is a victim of a gross mistake, which years ago erased his name from the list of those living in this world.

The prosecutor’s office said the claimant complained that just recently he learned from his employer he had been listed dead for the previous thirteen years. The mistake surfaced when the 41-old man decided to formalize his relations with the employer and conclude an official contract. Up to that moment he had been doing odd jobs unofficially.

"The prosecutor’s office launched a probe to find out that in July 2004 a male patient carrying no IDs was delivered to an infectious diseases hospital in the Kaliningrad region. The sick man’s name and other personal information were put down at the hospital entirely on the basis of his own verbal testimony. By sheer coincidence the patient had an identical namesake in the same area. All other personal details, except for the place of residence coincided, too. In August 2004 the patient died," the press-service said.

The regional forensic examination office eventually issued a death certificate containing wrong information. According to the prosecutor’s office the claimant who asked it for protection remained registered at his permanent place of residence in the town of Sovetsk all the time. In December 2012 he married and in February 2013 his daughter was born.

"It was at the moment of concluding an official employment contract that the man learned he had been listed dead since August 2004. The local registry office refused to make amendments to its files, though. The case had to be taken to the law enforcement watchdog," the regional prosecutor’s office said.

A local court has been asked to order corrections to the death entry in its archives to clear it of the living man’s personal data.